A Thirty-Day Reset After a Blown Account
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2026 10:01 am
A Thirty-Day Reset After a Blown Account
Situation: an account fell by 70 percent over several weeks, mostly because of oversized positions and moved stops. The remaining balance is small. The trader wants to continue. What does a responsible reset look like?
Days one to three: stop trading. Save all statements and journals. Do not deposit. Rest. Talk to someone you trust about what happened, and if the loss caused serious financial strain or distress, seek support from a financial counselor or a mental health professional.
Days four to ten: review. Export every trade. Compute the statistics: average risk per trade, largest loss in R, number of trades with moved stops, and the share of trades above the planned size. Identify the three causes that explain most of the damage.
Days eleven to fifteen: rebuild the plan. Write the one-page specification, risk rules with daily and weekly limits, a maximum risk per trade of 0.5 percent, and a pre-trade checklist.
Days sixteen to thirty: practice on demo or replay, with the same rules, logging every trade, and aiming for 30 trades with 95 percent rule-following.
After day thirty, decide with criteria: if the process metrics are met, restart live at half the normal size on a small amount you can afford to lose entirely. If not, extend the practice phase.
Recovery math: after a 70 percent loss, a 233 percent gain is needed to return to the starting level, so the goal should be learning, not recovery.
Exercise: write your own reset plan now, before you need it.
Situation: an account fell by 70 percent over several weeks, mostly because of oversized positions and moved stops. The remaining balance is small. The trader wants to continue. What does a responsible reset look like?
Days one to three: stop trading. Save all statements and journals. Do not deposit. Rest. Talk to someone you trust about what happened, and if the loss caused serious financial strain or distress, seek support from a financial counselor or a mental health professional.
Days four to ten: review. Export every trade. Compute the statistics: average risk per trade, largest loss in R, number of trades with moved stops, and the share of trades above the planned size. Identify the three causes that explain most of the damage.
Days eleven to fifteen: rebuild the plan. Write the one-page specification, risk rules with daily and weekly limits, a maximum risk per trade of 0.5 percent, and a pre-trade checklist.
Days sixteen to thirty: practice on demo or replay, with the same rules, logging every trade, and aiming for 30 trades with 95 percent rule-following.
After day thirty, decide with criteria: if the process metrics are met, restart live at half the normal size on a small amount you can afford to lose entirely. If not, extend the practice phase.
Recovery math: after a 70 percent loss, a 233 percent gain is needed to return to the starting level, so the goal should be learning, not recovery.
Exercise: write your own reset plan now, before you need it.